October 11, 2013

A Scary Story Of Scion (Part 1)

by Joshua Garrett

Just this last week, my weekly Tuesday game switched over to a game of Scion: Hero, and to commemorate the Halloween season, I decided to have some fun with it and start it off as something of a ghost story. Once everyone had their characters created and we did a short review of the rules for those who have not played in some time or who have never played Scion before, we got started. To begin, none of the characters know that they are, in fact, the children of the gods and, with one exception, do not know one another. It was left to the workings of Fate (or a clever Gamemaster) to bring them together.

The game began with one character; a former mixed martial arts fighter and scion of Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of the sun and war, being released from prison in Nevada. He had lost his temper, a trademark of his divine parent, during a fight and had accidentally killed the man. After a year spent in prison, he was being released thanks to the shrewd manipulations of his rather slick lawyer, who was also the only one available to come and pick him up. She was also a scion, the daughter of Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and war. It was early morning and the fog was thick as they drove along the highway. The scion of Huitzilopochtli snoozed in the passenger seat, disinterested in anything going on, while the scion of Athena drove. As the passed through a small town marked as “Hawthorn” the car began to sputter and quickly died. The scion of Athena got out her cell phone to call AAA, but found that it was without signal. A nearby convenient store, albeit closed as it was still only about six in the morning, had a payphone outside but, alas, it was also not working. While the scion of Athena did her best to remain cool-headed, the scion of Huitzilopochtli was clearly frustrated, his temper beginning to get the better of him once again.

The scions of Athena and Huitzilopochtli quickly made their way through the small town on foot, looking for a mechanic shop. It quickly became apparent that something was strange. The fog was ungodly thick, making even walking down a street somewhat difficult. The sun was rising, but even that just gave their surroundings an uncanny element. The morning air was also unusually cold for Nevada, even given the time of year (October). Most disturbingly of all, there was not a soul in sight. No one. No one was out walking their dog or driving to work. No one was in any of the buildings. Everything was closed, even a 24-hour gas station they passed by. Try as they might, the two scions could not remain oblivious to the fact that there was something odd going on which only got more strange as they reached the mechanic’s shop and began pounding on the door.